Lincoln's Use of the Bible

by S. Trevena Jackson

In Lincoln’s eulogy on Henry Clay he brings the Book of God before the people: “Pharaoh’s country was cursed with plagues and his hosts were lost in the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive people who had already served them more than four hundred years. May this disaster never befall us!”

His knowledge of the Bible is clearly seen in his debate with Judge Douglas, for when the latter described man in the garden with evil or good to choose from Lincoln’s reply was: “God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to take his choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he should not eat upon pain of certain death.” Later Judge Douglas said that Lincoln had a proneness for quoting the Scriptures, and Lincoln replied in his Springfield address, July 17, 1858: “If I should do so now it occurs that he places himself somewhat upon the ground of the parable of the lost sheep which went astray upon the mountains, and when the owner of the hundred sheep found the one that was lost and threw it upon his shoulders, and came home rejoicing, it was said that there was more rejoicing over the one sheep that was lost and had been found than over the ninety and nine in the fold. The application is made by the Saviour in this parable thus: ‘Verily I say unto you, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.’ Repentance before forgiveness is a provision of the Christian system.” In his fragments of a speech he claims “the revelation in the Bible, and his revelation the Bible.”

Lincoln has before his mind the ideas of the early church when he says: “‘Give to him that is needy’ is a Christian rule of charity.” In 1859 he gave a lecture on “Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements,” in which he gives a description of our first parents: “It was the destined work of Adam’s race to develop by discoveries, inventions, and improvements, and the first invention of which we have any account is the fig-leaf apron. Speech was used by our first parents, and even by Adam before the creation of Eve.”

At Cincinnati he speaks of “the loaves and fishes,” and concludes his speech almost with Bible words: “The good old maxims of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable, to human affairs; and in this as in other things we may say here that he who is not for us is against us; and he who gathereth not with us scattereth.” He concludes his speech in Kansas in the same year with the same words.

When the people were anxious to hear and see him on his way to the White House he was desirous of keeping silence, and often quoted: “Solomon says there is a time to keep silence.” At Philadelphia, in Independence Hall, he spoke: “All my political welfare has been in favor of the teachings that come from these sacred walls. May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to these teachings.”

When Lincoln proclaimed a national fast day he declared that all must be done in full conviction “that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

An old man had come to Lincoln for his son, who was to be shot, and said: “Mr. Lincoln, my wife sent me to you. We had three boys. They all joined your army. One of ’em has been killed, one’s a-fighting now, and one of ’em, the youngest, has been tried for deserting, and he’s going to be shot day after to-morrow. He never deserted. He’s wild and may have drunk too much and wandered off, but he never deserted. ’Tain’t in the blood. He’s his mother’s favorite, and if he’s shot I know she’ll die.” General Butler was telegraphed to to suspend the execution. The old man was afraid to go home with this message, thinking the President might give a different order to-morrow. Lincoln said to the old man: “Tell his mother that I said, ‘If your son lives until they get further orders from me, when he does die people will say that old Methuselah was a baby compared to him.’”

It is said that the best result which the convention achieved at Cleveland in 1864, when it nominated Fremont for the presidency and John Cochrane for the vice-presidency, was that it called forth a bit of wit from the President. Some one remarked to him that, instead of the expected thousands, only about four hundred persons were present. He turned to the Bible which, say Nicolay and Hay, commonly lay on his desk, and read I Sam. 22. 2: “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was in bitterness of soul, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.”

A primary and intermediate school was so located as to be separated by a fence from the rear of the White House grounds. The President often watched the children play. One morning the teacher gave them a lesson in neatness, and asked each boy to come to school next day with his shoes blacked. They all obeyed. One of them, John S., a poor one-armed lad, had used stove polish, the only kind his home afforded. The boys were merciless in their ridicule. The boy was only nine years old, the son of a dead soldier, his mother a washerwoman, with three other children to provide for. The President heard the boys jeering Johnny, and learned the facts about the boy.

The next day John S. came to school with a new suit and with new shoes, and told that the President had called at his home and took him to the store and bought two suits of clothes for him and clothes for his sisters, and sent coal and groceries to the house. In addition to this the lad brought to the teacher a scrap of paper containing a verse of Scripture, which Mr. Lincoln had requested to have written upon the blackboard: